Street
Peddler on the Lower East Side.
date unknownCourtesy of the New York Public
Library's Digital Gallery.

The neighborhood of Hester, Norfolk and Essex Streets presents a
quaint scene. The streets are black with purchasers, and bright with
the glare of hundreds of torches from the pushcarts. The faces are
markedly of a Oriental type; and the voices of the peddlers crying
their wares, the expostulations of the purchasers, the mingling of
the "Yiddish," of the elders with the English of the young people,
make a strange medley of sounds.

Great is the variety of wares to be seen on the carts. Dr. Wolborst,
who is much interested in the peddlers, has stated that what cannot
be bought in the pushcart market cannot easily be bought in New
York. A friend of his wanted to match some draperies. After visiting
the best stores uptown she inspected the wares of some Hester Street
peddlers and found what she required. The dry goods peddlers buy
remnants, odd pieces and samples from wholesale houses at low
prices. A woman bought a remnant of valuable lace from the peddler.
A pair of curtains of similar lace would have cost $ 75. She paid 50
cents. A friend of hers begged her to sell the piece for $20. She
did so, returned to the peddler and invested in a sufficient number
of similar remnants to make vestibule curtains and other lace
furnishings for all the rooms in her house. From bits of lace,
bought for a trifle from the peddlers, other women have made fichus,
capes, overskirts, etc. Pieces of fine cloth in sizes from half a
yard to several yards are often sold at low rates. Squares of
carpets such as the salesmen take out on the road as samples have
been bought from the peddlers for a trifle and converted into
handsome rugs. One ingenious woman carpeted a large room by joining
a number of squares of harmonious pattern and color. She called it a
"harlequin carpet" and it was much admired.

But the peddlers who vend such materials are not numerous. Most of
the goods are of ordinary quality. Stockings may be bought for 6
cents a pair, children's undergarments for 5 cents apiece. Many of
the carts are filled with rolls of oilcloth or wallpapers. The
smaller articles of household furniture-crockery, glassware, tins,
etc.are displayed. Ready-made clothing is cheap. Each cart has its
specialty, but in the line of carts there is a strange medley. Dried
fruits, fresh fruit, pickles, preserves, vegetables, meat and fish
alternate with household utensils, boots and shoes, jewelry and
clothing, books and stationery.

The fish carts are largely in the majority. The wholesale merchants
sell the fish at auction to the peddlers who go in crowds to the
stores of the dealers and have a lively but anxious time in trying
to outbid one another. Sometimes the fish is condemned by the Health
Department, to the great loss of the peddlers. As many as fifty tons
of fish are sometimes seized from them in a day. Charles B. Stover
and other members of the Social Reform Club have taken up the cause
of the fish peddlers and are trying to remedy some of the ills from
which they suffer. It is proposed to utilize a part of the Hester
Street Park for a fish market in the mornings, the building to be
used for other purposes later in the day. In this way the peddlers
would be relieved from paying tribute to the police which they do in
order to avoid arrests for obstructing the streets. Those who pay
regularly are not molested.

It is estimated that there are 1,500 peddlers of various wares in
that vicinity. The regular peddler pays $25 a year for his license
with the additional fees to the police. He can hardly earn more than
$5 a week so he often hires a pushcart for his wife, and sometimes
the children too are brought into the service. The rent of a
pushcart is 10 cents a day. Many of the peddlers are only
temporarily in the trade. Tailors or mechanics who are out of work
hire a pushcart until they find a position. Recently landed
immigrants are advised by their friends to take a pushcart until
they can establish themselves in some business.